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The United States Department of Justice has formed a task force to examine potential federal charges against officials or entities within the Cuban government, according to The Washington Post, citing an official familiar with the initiative.
The effort involves the participation of government agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, and is focused on exploring possible crimes related to immigration, economic matters, and other areas.
According to that information, the involvement of the Treasury could indicate that the Donald Trump administration is also considering the possibility of imposing new sanctions against Cuba.
The report adds that the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The initiative comes at a time when Trump has once again placed Cuba among his foreign policy priorities.
The supervision of the group will fall, according to the publication, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, which includes Miami, a central hub for the Cuban exile community.
According to the cited source, that office will lead the prosecutorial effort related to Cuba. The consulted official spoke on condition of anonymity because, according to the article, this is an internal plan that has not yet been made public.
The report suggests that the eventual process against Cuban officials could, at least in part, follow the model applied by Washington against the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. The Department of Justice formally charged Maduro in 2020, although he was not extradited at that time. In January 2026, the U.S. government launched an offensive against Venezuela, capturing Maduro and transporting him to New York to appear in court.
Cuba in Trump's sights
The president stated that his administration views Cuba as the next country whose government could fall, following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela in early January and the assassination of Iran's supreme leader on Saturday.
"It will only be a matter of time" before the Cuban government falls, Trump stated on Thursday before an audience at the White House largely made up of Republicans from South Florida, many of Cuban descent. He also said, "I just want to wait a couple of weeks."
Several former prosecutors from the Southern District of Florida's Office said to The Washington Post that they were not surprised that this office was leading an initiative specifically focused on judicial proceedings related to Cuba.
The article states that the federal prosecutor's office in Miami has a long history of handling high-profile cases related to irregularities associated with the Cuban regime.
In 2024, that office secured the conviction of Víctor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. diplomat who admitted to gathering intelligence for Cuba for more than four decades while holding sensitive positions in the State Department and the National Security Council of the United States.
Last month, several Republican members of the Florida delegation urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to reopen the investigation into the shooting down in 1996 of two unarmed civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based organization of Cuban exiles.
In that attack, four people were killed. At that moment, the group was surveying or patrolling nearby waters in search of refugees attempting to escape to the United States.
In a letter dated February 13, legislators Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar, Carlos A. Giménez, and Nicole Malliotakis stated that Raúl Castro, then in charge of the Cuban army, ordered that attack.
The congress members stated that there are audio recordings of Raúl Castro discussing the incident and indicated that this material could help build a case.
"We firmly believe that Raúl Castro is responsible for this heinous crime," states the letter. "It is time for him to face justice."
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